”Haters screaming illuminati. They can’t believe this much skill in a human body.” – JAY Z

Something which I am personally fascinated by and in; what the limits of a human body are, and what a single human being can achieve. Kind of like how Michelangelo was able to single-handedly paint the Sistine chapel; I believe that if one intelligently uses their time and life force, one can achieve a phenomenally epic thing in their lives.

How Vietnam was the first step

My first personal renaissance happened in Vietnam, when I unplugged and went off the grid for almost 2 years. No email, no external correspondence. Nothing. Only strong Vietnamese coffee, focus, music, and philosophical introspection. Lots of reading philosophy, and lots of writing.

How Phnom Penh Cambodia has become the second step

Phnom Penh is my new favorite city in the world. Why? As much as I loved Vietnam, Phnom Penh is the next level. Why? Simply put, my new favorite gym and iron paradise: Monkifit gym here in PP.

On the road to greatness, I believe that physical greatness is essential. I do not really care for any other innovator, or entrepreneur, if they cannot deadlift or squat more than I can. This is why the only writer and philosopher currently living who is interesting (whom I greatly admire and respect) is Nassim Taleb; he deadlifts. And encourages others to do as well. Also, I first learned of the “one rep max“ concept from him and his Antifragile book.

This is where Kanye West is not very impressive; he seems to be too fat, and maybe no longer lifts weights. He is so rich now, and now that he is divorced, he should be able to hire the best personal trainer in the world. Kanye West has the ability to look like an idealized version of himself in the Black skinhead music video. Kanye West should get back into weight lifting — bench press, squat, and deadlift. Kanye should also go on a 100% carnivore diet; with only the finest cuts of beef and meat on the planet.

I cannot speak for others, but what I personally desire is to establish the most supreme personal mode of living, or lifestyle for myself.

Why discount yourself, or discount the efforts and/or achievements of others?

The tall poppy syndrome

Everyone likes to think of themselves as the most supreme. Therefore, others will often discount others in lieu of the fact that when they see somebody else greater than themselves, they personally feel diminished.

However, this only becomes a problem if you benchmark your greatness in respect to others. I say, detach yourself from all external metrics.

Why can you not trust others, or their supposed experiences? It is impossible to know whether they’re telling the truth, or even whether they have the facts right.

For example, what if Lance Armstrong was truly 100% ignorant of the performance enhancing stuff which was happening to him?

Or as a thought experiment, imagine if there is a world record power lifter, and his personal trainer was secretly injecting him with steroids and hormones in his diet, without the athlete knowing? And that athlete genuinely 100% believed that he was all natural? Therefore if somebody asked him whether he was “all natural“, and he said yes I am 100% all natural, he would be telling the truth, ignorant of the fact what his personal trainer was doing to him in his sleep.

My personal curiosity with physical strength, and bodybuilding

It is impossible to know what is physically possible, when it comes to the strength or the muscle or the physique of other bodies. All you could trust is yourself, because you know with 100% certainty what you do to yourself.

For example, impossible to know with 100% certainty whether the other guys in the gym are on the “juice” or not. And instead of wasting time, or mental bandwidth on doing research online about what is “natty” (natural) or not, just focus on yourself.

Why does nobody like themselves?

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The problem: most thoughts published are depressing than motivational.

My personal ambition: to only share motivational thoughts. Funny enough, even my mom aspired me to become a motivational speaker. Thus for myself, maybe my life goal should just be a motivational blogger? And vlogger? Or person?

Why is so much of modern day media so dismotivational?

Several thoughts;

First of all, it looks like most modern media is driven on fear, and negative emotions rather than positive ones. For example, what are you more likely to click on? An article about a nice young boy helping a grandma walk across the street, or some new terrorist attack?

Therefore this is the first big problem: perhaps there is a human bias that we are more prone to be attracted to danger and fear, rather than the positive ones.

Via Negativa

The concept that I keep going back to, which I learned from Nassim Taleb in his book antifragile is his notion of via negativa. The basic notion is that we gain more from subtraction than addition.

For example, in order to become more motivated, perhaps the best strategy is to get rid of our dismotivators; things that dismotivate us.

For example, I am very critical of weed and marijuana. Why? It makes you lazy. Like Musk said, smoking weed is like the exact opposite of drinking a cup of coffee. Most productive and optimistic people that I know like drinking coffee.

What dismotivates you?

Things that prevent you from leaving the house. For example, COVID-19 was a huge dismotivator for most people; it made us fearful of just leaving the house. However, now that we are all vaccinated, the vaccine is out, etc., yes, you can leave your house now. And, it is also necessary for you to strategically unlearn the fear of being in public.

For example, I say just go out, and live your life, get your necessary booster shots, and just wear a face mask when in doubt.

Stop consuming the news

It is a physiological thing; whenever I see the news, or accidentally read it, it has a physiologically depressing effect on me.

We all agree that McDonald’s is bad for your health, why not social media? Why not the news?

All media is bad, even the good ones

My belief is that all media outlets are bad, even the “woke” and progressive ones. Even Al Jazeera, NPR, the New Yorker, and other “fact checking“ news sources. Whether they like it or not, all of modern news is driven on Google AdSense and mobile advertising, which means there is always some sort of hidden incentive to maximize clicks and views.

Funny enough, everyone always critiques Facebook and social media for spreading disinformation, but Google, and Google AdSense is never accused. Because if you think about it, even much of Facebook‘s profits piggyback off of Google AdSense. Therefore, Google, and Google AdSense is a stronger player than Facebook, who is simply the middleman.

Again, this then nudges writers and platforms to focus on more negative and sensational news, which strikes fear in us and dismotivates us.

The joy of movement

For me, I realize that after much thinking and life experimentation, I prefer to be in public, out and about, exposed to the elements, rather than chambered at home, indoors, and yes even the mall. I found that spending too much time inside an air-conditioned place, or a heated place actually lulls you to sleep. Even being here in Southeast Asia, in Phnom Penh Cambodia, I feel greater physiological energy when I’m outdoors in the hot and humid weather, than indoors in an air-conditioned mall, car, or room. The only nuance is that I prefer to sleep with air conditioning. Otherwise, air conditioning has a more depressing effect on your body, rather than a motivational one.

Having the right clothes

What is the ideal shirt? If it is hot, or humid outside, topless.

For hot and humid weather, no jeans. No long pants. Breathable mesh nylon shorts. I really like the Lululemon license to train shorts, and even the breathable Uniqlo mesh shorts.

If you must wear a shirt, then outlier.nyc merino wool T-shirt. Or just get a nylon tanktop.

For shoes, Vibram five fingers. I really like the EL-X model. Why are shoes important? Because the lighter, more compact, less foam, your shoes, the more you can walk, move, and play with less fatigue. I believe nowadays, shoes are the modern procrustion bed.

For example nowadays, there is a shoe-first approach. That we try to get our feet to fit our shoes, rather than getting shoes that already fit our feet (natural barefoot style, five finger toes).

The only objection that people honestly have about Vibram five fingers shoes is that they look weird. But maybe we should turn it into a new fashion trend.

For example, flip-flops and sandals, and crocs were seen with diadain, and were considered lame or for losers. But now if you look at the new crocs, the Yeezy slides, etc., the new trend is towards slide-type slippers, and crocs. Even note the high-end Balenciaga collaboration with crocs. Also the Hermès flip-flops.

Share your own motivational thoughts

Ironically enough, whenever I share things which motivate me, and I publish them, there is a BOGO (buy one, get one free) effect; first, it motivates me even further, and it also motivate others. This is where I think the blogging and vlogging is so powerful; you can double dip motivation.

I recommend you to thus start your own blog or YouTube channel, and share your own motivational thoughts with others!

Be driven by enthusiasm and passion

It is difficult to fake enthusiasm and passion. Even harder to fake hate (Nassim Taleb, bed of procrustes).

The radical motivational idea I have is this:

Perhaps the best mode of action is to live a life in which you only do and pursue things you’re insanely passionate about, and have great enthusiasm for, and disregard everything else.

Like Nietzsche says, we must renounce many things.

For example, for me this means renouncing social media, renouncing email, renouncing text messaging, and renouncing other forms of distractions.

Also, not to do things that do you think people will like, but just doing things that you like.

For example, in UI/US design, don’t create an interface which you think people will like. Rather, follow your own gut and design things which you consider beautiful. This is the genius of Steve Jobs; his incredible tenacity to create a device which was absolutely beautiful and perfect for him.

Also, for web designers. Especially YouTube designers:

Create a user interface in which you would not feel ashamed having your kids use.

For example, probably the biggest waste of human potential is YouTube and children. How many kids I see mindlessly clicking through YouTube, and becoming pacified. If you were one of the head designers for user interface for YouTube, I say it is your moral and ethical objective to design it in such a way that you yourself would not feel ashamed having your kids use it. This is why I am so suspicious of Silicon Valley; the rich and elites send their kids to anti-technology schools, yet they sell Google Chrome books and iPads to schools. Even Steve Jobs refused to let his kids iPads. Why? Certainly a hidden downside.

Motivation in photography

Start off by deleting Instagram. And everything you would otherwise share on Instagram, share to your own blog instead. For my true followers, the number one test I have is this:

If you desire to follow me and become my disciple, you first must delete your Instagram.

Otherwise, no faith.

I also don’t trust people in Silicon Valley who use Facebook and or Instagram

Folks from silicon valley should know better. Most intelligent people I know who are photographers and visual artists from Silicon Valley still use Instagram and or Facebook or Reddit. The only people from Silicon Valley I trust are the ones that don’t use Facebook or Instagram. Even more radical, don’t use Reddit.

Also, knowing some of the former head people from Google; who no longer work there, they themselves no longer have a Google account. Why? They probably know something that we don’t.

Motivation in our photography

I like the notion that you can become a “full stack photographer”. That you shoot anything and everything with your heart desires. No more categories, genres, boundaries.

For example, one of the biggest dismotivators in my photography in the past was that I felt like I had to stay within the small genre of street photography. Also, I find it very strange and bizarre that videographers constrain themselves too much in the world of video; they should also delight in shooting still photos! Also, more traditional photographers should also shoot video for fun!

For example, sometimes I see things in which just shooting a still photo is lacking. More fun to shoot a 30 second video clip of it, Snapchat style, for myself. And where to host it? I like to use the videopress.com plug-in for WordPress, or just upload it to youtube.com

Genres constrain our creativity.

Don’t classify yourself

For example, I find there to be too much baggage and weight whenever you try to classify yourself into something, like being a “writer“, photographer, poet, etc. Maybe it’s best to just think of yourself like a big kid, and you like to do stuff and create stuff for fun!

Most of the adults I know are too serious. All of my close friends who I admire are the ones who don’t take themselves too seriously, and they simply live their lives like overgrown children.

Therefore, it seems the number one motivator is to become more childlike. For example, as Seneca is exploring the world, he doesn’t need any external motivators like a pedometer, step counter, or metrics for “success“. Success and failure are not even notions to him yet; he is simply driven by curiosity, desire, and desire to learn more about the world around him. If he could do it his way, he would simply play all day, and not sleep. And he does this all without coffee, caffeine, stimulants, money, or carrots and sticks!

Therefore the number one direction we should go in:

Become more childlike!

ERIC

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More Motivation

1. Become more spartan
2. A critique of “body acceptance”

ERIC KIM BLOG

Motivate yourself more

1. Upload your photos to arsbeta.com
2. Ask yourself why?

Share the motivation!

If this sparked any motivational ideas within you, feel free to forward it to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS LINK

For myself, I desire to become more like a spartan 300 soldier.

For example, I desire to become harder, less soft. More manly, more focused, more ascetic.

In terms of my personal aesthetics, I desire to look more like a spartan soldier. For me, the ideal is to look like king Leonidas, or any of his brave soldiers.

Also funny enough, the best visual I got of child rearing actually comes from the movie 300. I do not want Seneca to be soft; I want him to be strong and hard. Also another good visual from the film Ninja Assassin— seeing how spartan the children were raised.

Less, but more elite

Would you rather have 1 million slave Persian slave soldiers, or 300 dedicated spartan warriors?

This is where I love the graphic artist Frank Miller; if it wasn’t for his rendition of the war of Thermopylae, we would not have the Zach Snyder rendition of the movie 300.

A single boy child?

It seems that when it comes to movies, a common motif is the solo boy child.

In modern American society, the notion of a “only child” is seen as so bad. It teaches them to be “selfish”. However this is my suspicion; it seems that all men, or all fathers desire to have at least one boy, to continue their lineage. Therefore, typically when you see a man with only one girl, as their first child, they seem to desire to try for a second, in order to have a boy.

This is why I often see a lot of guys with two girls. Because the first child was a girl, and they tried for a second and ended up having another girl. Or even families with three girls; three attempts, no boys.

Therefore, is the spartan ideal to birth only one boy, man? Or to bear as many men as possible?

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Certainly there are things you cannot change (your facial features, height, eye color, etc), and your genetic features. Yet, there is so much you can change!

My overall critique of the notion of “body acceptance” is this:

It is depressing. It’s telling yourself, “This is the body you’re stuck with, and there is nothing you can do about it”.

It is fatalism.

What’s a superior approach? I say—

Okay there are certain things I can change and certain things I cannot change. Disregard the aspects I cannot change, but take radical control of the things I can change!

For example, weight lifting as “epigenetics”, or how you can modify your genetics. Any human being, if they start weight training will and must put on muscle mass (skeletal muscle mass). This is a physiological fact. For example it is impossible for anyone who can deadlift 500+ pounds to not have bigger muscles than someone who cannot. Or in other words,

If you start training deadlift, squat, and bench press it is impossible to not put on muscle mass and to increase the size and strength and “swoleness” of your muscles.

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“But I’m a “hard gainer!”“

Everyone is a hard gainer. And also, I am starting to think the notion of being a “hard gainer”, being an “ectomorph”, or being a “mesomorph” or any of these new pseudo-scientific classifications are the new bodily racism.

For example, typically speaking Asian guys, especially Asian Americans (East Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians) see themselves as physiologically inferior to African-Americans, or those with African descent. For example something I realized when I first deadlifted 4 plates and a 25 on each side (around 455 pounds)—

Everyone at the gym was so shocked I could do it.

But I asked my friend, “If I were African-American, would people be as shocked?” He laughed and said frankly, “Probably not”.

The ancient Greeks were “colored”

This is why all these “color politics” annoys me so much — it is ignorant and inaccurate. For example, let us agree that the height of past civilization and greatness were the ancient Greeks. They were all “colored” Mediterranean folks. No “Caucasian’s” or “white” folks here. Everyone probably looked like they had a good tan — olive colored skin.

And the height of all their achievements in terms of strength, military prowess, athleticism, wisdom, intelligence etc wasn’t a race thing — all Greeks were Greeks. Certainly there was a subdivision of slaves, free men, artisans, soldiers, merchants and aristocrats, but in Greece, all were Greek.

Back to the body

Taking it back to the body — any human being given a certain approach will and must put on muscle mass, and remove body fat (adipose tissue). The bigger issue at hand is an optimization thing —

How quickly or slowly can I do it?

And I think this is how we fail — we are all in such a hurry. I say it is simple:

1. To increase muscle mass and size, simply start powerlifting and slowly and gradually attempting heavier weights.
2. To decrease body fat (adipose tissue), start intermittent fasting (no breakfast or lunch, only one massive dinner meal a day), and quit all sugar (natural or fake), quit all sweet stuff, all starchy things (even the “healthy” starches like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower), all “vegetables” (most vegetables are starches in disguise).

Then what can you eat? Simple:

1. Lots of red and fatty meat. Also organ meats. I love beef belly, lamb, beef liver, beef heart, lamb belly, beef ribs, etc. Eggs as a supplemental snack (if I have leftover beef belly oil in the frying pan I just cook 8-12 eggs in it).
2. Bitter greens and herbs. Kale, spinach, chrysanthemum greens— anything bitter. Bitter is better.

Take your time

Perhaps with transforming your body, give it a year. Or a decade.

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Stop looking at bodybuilders on social media (they’re all on strange supplements, hormones, steroids, etc). Instead look at Ancient Greek heroes — The Farnese Hercules. The Doryphoros.

Also, spend more time looking at yourself. Shoot more selfies of yourself, your body, etc. Become more fascinated with your own body than the body of others.

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Also I say—

See your body as superior to the body of others, and don’t desire to exchange your body with any other human on the planet.

“Are you all natty bro?”

No problems with plastic surgery. Only critique —

It doesn’t hold up well over time.

For example women I see with plastic surgery in their older years end up looking frightening.

If you got in a car accident and your face got torn up (Tom Cruise, Vanilla Sky), certainly plastic surgery is great! Yet if you’re already beautiful, striving to become MORE beautiful is not a good path.

Big boobs as a trend?

Something random I read online which I found interesting:

With men being attracted to women breasts— it isn’t about breast size, rather “perkiness” (the suppleness of the breast and the direction the nipples point, ideally upwards) as a sign of health and youth.

Big breasts (unnaturally big, plastic surgery implants) I think are just a Hollywood (Pamela Anderson) trend.

A superior trend I see is the “big butt” trend, as all women can get a bigger and more muscular butt and glutes through squats, deadlift, hip thrusters etc.

Even for myself, I’m most proud of my legs (my thunder thighs, turbo thighs) and my butt than any other part of my body. That and my back.

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How Brad Pitt changed the game

I believe up unto this point, Brad Pitt has been the alpha male in American society, and also with Hollywood celebrity. His body physique in Fight Club was the #1 desirable aesthetic.

Also, the movie 300– the physique of King Leonidas and the insanely ripped Spartan 300 soldiers.

Build your body, build your soul.

Build your body in such a way you like it and love it!

For example, if you find a certain part of your body lacking, it isn’t about “bodily acceptance”, but rather, deciding to build it and improve it instead!

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PODCAST

What is always fascinating to me when it comes to powerlifters and them attempting their one rep max:

How do they hype themselves up?

The art of the hype:

What is one of the most important skills in life? I believe it to be the ability to hype yourself up. A primal technique, to awaken the maximum amount of physiological power in your body.

Hypelifting

Something I have realized about modern day life; we are not allowed to be loud. Yet the funny irony is that we are allowed to have loud cars, loud clothes, and loud possessions. However, we ourselves are not allowed to be loud auditorily.

For example, proper and bland folks tend to disdain a lot of rowdy young lower class kids for being “too loud”.

Unlearning this

Thus it seems the first step is this:

Discover great joy and pride in hyping yourself up!

Good sources of inspiration

The Hakka war chant by the All Blacks New Zealand Māori rugby team. Downright frightening to the souls of their opponents.

Also, Ronnie Coleman (lightweight baby! Ain’t nothing but a peanut! Whoooo)

How and why does hyping yourself up work?

I believe it is an adrenaline thing, and a priming of your muscles thing.

Going blank

How do I hype myself up?

First of all, via negativa. No music. No headphones. No distractions. I believe the art of the hype is to empty your mind of thoughts, fear, hesitation, doubt, etc.

I know a lot of lifters and powerlifters who rely on listening to music to hype themselves up. And truth be told it is very effective. However, something which interested me when watching the old-school pumping iron weightlifting documentary with Arnold Schwarzenegger; nobody had headphones on while working out. Also, one of the things I was inspired by John Cena is that one of his rules of the gym is no music.

When I was initially on the road to try to deadlift 405 pounds, four plates, I heavily relied on music. I probably listenened to Kanye West’s YEEZUS album and black skinhead song at least 1 billion times to hype myself up. However, ultimately the downside was this; I became too dependent on the music. For example, there was a certain part the track where the drums hit super heavy, which would allow me to fully hype myself up before I attempted a one-rep max. And if I missed that spot in the track, I would no longer have the focus or the energy or the hype to attempt the new one rep max.

Also, one of the great downsides of dependency on music is this; what if you accidentally leave your headphones at home? Or you don’t have music easily readily available to you? Then you’re screwed.

Zero doubt

Also, something essential for me: before I attempt a new one rep max, in my mind and in my soul I must have zero doubt. The basic idea is that I know that I can already do it, and all that I require is focus, and maximal activation of my muscles and body at the right time.

For example, yesterday I just had a new one rep maximum for my deadlift. Yet about four or five days prior, I attempted something heavier, and failed. My prior attempt, I attempted a far heavier weight, and I was able to just get a little bit off the ground, but I was not able to fully lockout.

Therefore my strategy was simple: just reduce the overall weight by 5 kg on each side, and then I would know that I would actually be able to easily successfully fully deadlift the weight.

This is why I think it is very important for you to know what your one rep maximum is, and to actually kind of lift the weight, but fail. It gives you a benchmark of your strength, and therefore when you attempt the weight again in the future, do you know how much more or how much less to add, to modify the weight.

Or in other words, let us say you attempt a very very heavy deadlift, and you kind of get it off the ground just a little. Then give it about four or five days, and then try the deadlift again, with a little less weight. Then you should know that you will be able to do it.

Practical suggestions with weightlifting

I personally believe that the best lift is the deadlift. Why? To me it makes the most sense. You have a very very heavy weight on the ground, and it is a binary thing; you could either lift it off the ground or you cannot.

Also, from an ego perspective, physiologically you should be able to deadlift more than you can squat. Therefore, the higher the weight, the healthier it is for your ego.

Why trap bar deadlift, or why hex bar deadlift?

The reason why I am such a huge proponent of the trap bar and hex bar is this: you can lift heavier weights with it. Also, I believe that the neutral grip is anatomically superior.

Also, superior leverage. Consider how superior it is for you to be in the CENTER of the weight, without concern for your ankles, shins or legs to get in the way of the barbell.